Italy evacuating citizens from Georgia
The Associated Press
August 10, 2008

ROME: Italy evacuated most of its citizens in Georgia to neighboring
Armenia on Sunday because of hostilities between Georgia and Russia
over the separatist region of South Ossetia, the Foreign Ministry said.

Buses carrying 134 people, including about 20 citizens from other EU
countries, left Tbilisi for an airport in Gyumri, Armenia, around 150
kilometers (90 miles) south of the Georgian capital, said Fabrizio
Romano, head of the crisis unit at the ministry.

Two Italian military C130 planes will fly the evacuees to Rome later
Sunday, he said. Other Italians, most of them vacationing in the
southern Black Sea city of Batumi, were making their way on their own
to Turkey, which also borders Georgia.

Georgia, meanwhile, agreed to a cease-fire and expressed its readiness
to start negotiations with Russia. But Moscow said Georgian troops
weren’t observing the cease-fire pledge yet, the Interfax news agency
reported.

Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had called for an
immediate cease-fire in the conflict, which erupted between Georgia and
Russia after Tbilisi launched an offensive to retake the breakaway
province.

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of a mission Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday, targeting Tbilisi
for the first time and driving Georgian troops out of South Ossetia’s
provincial capital, Tskhinvali, with heavy shelling.

In an interview with TV channel SKY TG 24, Frattini said Georgia’s
territorial integrity must be respected, but added that Italy "opposes
the use of weapons to defend territorial integrity."

He called on the European Union to come up with a common and "balanced"
position on the crisis, adding that Premier Silvio Berlusconi had
discussed the issue with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a
telephone call.

"Italy is telling both sides to stop, to end the acts of hostility and
the violence and worry about the population of South Ossetia, which has
already suffered a lot," Frattini said.

Around 50 protesters, meanwhile, marched through the streets of
downtown Rome to Parliament in a pro-Georgia demonstration. They
denounced Russia, chanting slogans and carrying banners that read "Stop
bombing in Georgia" and "Europe, stop Russia."